While 2018 saw the demand for gender equality in movies reach an all-time high in Hollywood, Cannes and beyond, two new studies this week have served as a sobering reminder that the push for better representation is a marathon, not a sprint.
USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative study, conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, found that just four female directors worked on the 100 top-grossing movies in 2018 — the lowest number in at least four years. Over the 12-year span of the study, only 4.3 percent of all 1,335 directors surveyed were women. That’s a ratio of 22 men to every woman.